Soooo...across this nation (USA) there are many 'tea parties' being held protesting rising taxes (are they rising?), superfluous government spending (what about the economy?), and taxation without representation that by the looks of things are being brought to us by the Fox News Corporation.

1. Are there rising taxes?

2. True, large amounts of money are being thrown out there, but is it wise to allow huge sections of this countries financial market continue their nuclear meltdown?

3. Did the vast majority of individuals at these 'tea parties' forget what 'taxation without representation' was all about, or are they just bitchy, whining losers?

And lastly, Fox News has to stop saying they are fair and balanced after this. By using those words they are skewing their definitions so much that they might as well be erased from the English language.

wheelchairman

04-16-2009, 07:10 AM

I can only answer number 3, and that's yes. Obviously.

Unless of course we are raising taxes in Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico doesn't have a representative.

But then I'd just say, fuck the colonies. I mean protectorates. "ooooh"

Rag Doll

04-16-2009, 08:29 AM

I intern in the district office of a U.S. Democratic Congressman from NJ. We keep having people mail us tea bags. Then yesterday we got no less than 15 red envelopes with just the Congressman's name on the front on a label and a stamp, no return address. Opened it up and just found the little square tag from the end of the tea bag (that thing that says "lipton" or whatever brand)...no letter. In every envelope.

First off, this is doing nothing but annoying the interns that open the mail. The Congressman has read this in the paper, but it's not like we go rushing off yelling "sir sir! come quick, sir! they sent tags from tea!"....no. Just no. And sending stuff with no letter or return address is definitely useless, because it then becomes the equivalent of spam email.

Secondly, I read an article on MSNBC about this last night that said some Congressional district offices have had to be evacuated because of this. They just get lumpy envelopes in the mail with no return address and a printed label....hello anthrax scare. Or the intern opens the mail and sees powder fall out (tea bag got crushed, they took the tea out of the bag before putting in envelope, whatever), and everyone freaks. So they call in police and Hazmat crews in. That costs a whole lot of money that Republicans are bitching about spending. nice.

Soooo...across this nation (USA) there are many 'tea parties' being held protesting rising taxes (are they rising?), superfluous government spending (what about the economy?), and taxation without representation that by the looks of things are being brought to us by the Fox News Corporation.

1. Are there rising taxes?

It depends on how much you make. For those who make more than a quarter million a year, then yes, they're taxes probably went up a little, for everybody else, which is a majority of the US population, taxes went down. This is the most asinine thing about it, and most of these misled confused people attendinfg these events are actually working class, so,....essentially,...they have nothing to complain about, they're paying less than they were before. This is largely a product of the right wing machine, including Faux News. The republican party is authoritarian in nature and essentially controlled by two powerful groups, the business elite and religious extremists. Those in power generally endeavor to manipulate the masses into adopting they're own interests. This is where things like this come from. At these tea parties you have predominantly working-class people protesting elevated taxes for the wealthy, nationalized healthcare, and other welfarist policies which actually help them. However these policies are anathema to the wealthy and influential, so they do they're best to demonize these ideas and turn people against them. Socialist/welfarist policies are ultimately based on the fundamental idea that we should take care of eachother and be responsible for eachother, which doesn't mesh with the elites' mantra "Gain wealth, forgetting all but self" what Adam Smith called "the vile maxim of the masters of mankind."

2. True, large amounts of money are being thrown out there, but is it wise to allow huge sections of this countries financial market continue their nuclear meltdown?

There needs to be some kind of federal intervention, however, I think both parties have it wrong in this case. First of all I think the governments' first order of business should be the people on the bottom, the homeowners, that the federal government rushed to the aid of the ultra-rich financial institutions who created the problem speaks to they're priorities, but it shouldn't be surprising to anybody who knows anything how the system actually works. The response to this crisis is synptomatic of the prevailing orthodoxy, socialize risk and privatize profit.
Here's a good video with Noam Chomsky giving a more thorough analysis and some ideas for solutions.
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3484#transcript
Paul Krugman has also published some good ideas on this issue.

3. Did the vast majority of individuals at these 'tea parties' forget what 'taxation without representation' was all about, or are they just bitchy, whining losers?

I'd say it's a little bit of both. First, I think these people probably have a very limited and skewed understanding of history, and they're "bitchy whining losers."

And lastly, Fox News has to stop saying they are fair and balanced after this. By using those words they are skewing their definitions so much that they might as well be erased from the English language.

True, but that sort of Orwellian double-speak is common to monolithic institutions, for example the Departmemnt of Defense, which is of course almost solely occupied with aggression.

IamSam

04-17-2009, 12:44 AM

Also, I'm pretty much in love with John Oliver.

RickyCrack

04-17-2009, 02:52 AM

does anybody else find it hilarious that fox news decided that "tea bag day" would happen on jackie robinson day?